THE SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
SOCIOLOGICAL PARADIGMS AND
THEIR USES
How Research Filters Perception
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THE FIVE SOCIOLOGICAL
PARADIGMS
STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
CONFLICT THEORY
FEMINISM
POST MODERNISM
THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM
EXTREMES=TOTALITARIANISM OR TRUE
COMMUNISM
CONSERVATIVE-RIGHT WING
LIBERAL –MIDDLE
RADICAL-LEFT WING
Durkheim’s Theory of Suicide
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SOCIAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE
SOCIAL INTEGRATION or not
RELIGION or not
MILITARY INVOLVEMENT or not
MARRIAGE or not
DURKHEIM’s METHOD
Existing social statistics
Quantitative measurement-percentage
OTHER FUNCTIONALIST
APPROACHES
SURVEYS
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
EXPERIMENTS
QUALITATIVE PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION
FUNCTIONALISM: AN `IS’
ORIENTATION
CONCEPTS=
order,
stability,
equilibrium
adaptation,
social solidarity
CONFLICT THEORY: AN
OUGHT ORIENTATION
CONCEPTS=
ALIENATION
OPPRESSION
CLASS CONFLICT
FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS
IDEOLOGY
Marx’s Modes of Production
1.TRIBAL
2.ANCIENT COMMUNAL
3.FEUDAL
4.CAPITALISTIC
5.SOCIALISTIC
CONFLICT THEORIST
METHODs
CRITICAL THEORY
DIALECTICAL
MACRO or MICRO APPROACH
USE STATISTIC TO DISCLOSE CLASS
INEQUALITY
CASE STUDIES OF OPPRESSION
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
Focuses on interpersonal
communication in microlevel social
settings
Emphasizes social life is possible
only because people attach
meanings to things
Stresses people help to create their
social circumstances, not merely
react to them
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Erving Goffman
(1922-82)
Famous Canadian
Symbolic
Interactionist.
Studied sociology &
anthropology at
University of Toronto.
Renowned for
“dramaturgical”
approach.
13
WEBER’s VIEW OF
CAPITALISM
CAPITALISM WILL NOT BE DESTROYED
without “the Charismatic Rebirth of new
GODs
CAPITALISM is a value orientation
originally the product of the `Protestant
Ethic’
SOCIAL CLASS less important than
status groups
WEBER’S SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONIST CONCEPTS
Verstehen
VALUE ORIENTATION
FORMAL RATIONALITY
BUREACRACY
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST
CONCEPTS
SYMBOLS
CUES AND GESTURE
INTERPRETATIVE UNDERSTAND
SOCIAL SELF
LOOKING GLASS SELF
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONIST
METHODS
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
OPEN ENDED ETHNOGRAPY
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
FIELD METHODS
FEMINIST THEORY
Focuses on various aspects of
patriarchy (system of male
domination in society)
Suggests male domination is
determined by structures of power
Examines operation of patriarchy
in both microlevel and
macrolevel social settings
Recommends eliminating patterns
Copyright © 2010 Nelson Education Limited
of gender inequality
Margrit Eichler
(1942- )
Chair, Sociology,
OISE.
Head of Women’s
Studies,
University of Toronto.
Internationally known
for work on
feminist methodology.
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FEMINIST METHODS
STATISTICS THAT POINT TO GENDER
INEQUALITY
CASE STUDIES
QUANTITIVE AND QUALITATIVE
ANALYSIS
FEMINIST THEORY
Focuses on various aspects of
patriarchy (system of male
domination in society)
Suggests male domination is
determined by structures of power
Examines operation of patriarchy
in both microlevel and
macrolevel social settings
Recommends eliminating patterns
Copyright © 2010 Nelson Education Limited
of gender inequality
Margrit Eichler
(1942- )
Chair, Sociology,
OISE.
Head of Women’s
Studies,
University of Toronto.
Internationally known
for work on
feminist methodology.
20
Postmodernism
Postmodernism was originally a reaction
to modernism.
Influenced by the Western European
disillusionment induced by World War II,
Postmodernism tends to refer to a cultural,
intellectual, or artistic state lacking a clear
central hierarchy or organizing principle.
Postmodernism
Postmodernism
Sees social reality as
embodying extreme
complexity, contradiction,
ambiguity, diversity, or interreferentiality
POST MODERNIST METHODS
DECONSTRUCT GRAND NARRATIVES
CASE STUDIES
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF EMPTY
CONCEPTS
CONCLUSION
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE-social
forces influence individual behaviour
PARADIGMS-SF, CONFLICT, SI,
FEMINISM..
Paradigms differ on the impact of society on
the individual.
Paradigms are key to unlocking parochial
and provincial tunnel vision